COMMENTARY:This
is so important that the elders throw the assembly wide open to everyone.

17) He replied by giving them an
account of what was said in the council of Holofernes, and of all his own words
among the Assyrian rulers, and of all the boasting threats of Holofernes
against the house of Israel.

COMMENTARY:What
else could he do.But this tests whether
the people have as much faith as Achior.

18) At this the people
fell prostrate and worshiped God, and they cried out: 19)
“Lord, God of heaven, look at their arrogance! Have mercy on our people
in their abject state, and look with favor this day on the faces of those who
are consecrated to you.”